U.S. Sen. James Lankford delivered a speech on the chamber's floor Thursday calling on Congress to end taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood.
The remarks came in response to the release of an undercover video made by anti-abortion activists. It shows the organization's senior director of medical services discussing procedures for providing fetal body parts to researchers.
“These are not mice. These are not lab rats. These are children,” Lankford said. “Children that have gone through the process of a horrific abortion.”
The anti-abortion group that released the video alleges that Planned Parenthood is selling fetal organs for a profit, which the group says would amount to a felony. Planned Parenthood countered, saying that the fetal organ sales are for reimbursement for its expenses, which the organization says is legal.
In an op-ed published Thursday, Lankford also urged Congress to take up the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to ban abortions after 20 weeks.
“That child has value. And that every single adult that can hear me right now was once 20 weeks old in the womb and we can look at each other and understand the difference between that child in the womb and any of us now is time,” Lankford said. “That's a human being we're talking about. “
